He slipped her clothing out from her arm, laid them on a chaise lounge, and said, “Hey, Roxie, lay this on the steps up to Laura’s apartment, okay?”
“Sure thing, but I’ll be glad to just take them inside for her.”
“Thank you, that would be great. The door is open,” Laura said.
Colton threw an arm around Laura’s shoulders. His legs were longer than hers but he shortened his step and they kept perfect time. It was about two hundred yards from one barn to the other. She could have sprinted that far without even losing her wind, but when he slid the big barn door open and there was no sign of her new calf or its mother, she gasped.
“Did he die?”
“No, he was fine this morning so I turned them both back out to pasture. He’s been romping around all day. He’s a happy little bull calf and there are other calves his size to play with him.”
“Then why did you bring me in here?”
He sat down on a bale of hay and patted the one beside him. “I want to talk. I want straight answers and nothing else. And I didn’t want Roxie or Aunt Maudie to hear.”
“Then talk,” she said.
“Are you for real?”
“That’s a weird question, Colton. Real what? Real hair color, yes, it’s all natural. My eyes are this shade of blue even when I use my contacts. My glasses are really this thick because I’m half blind without them. My boobs are real and my lips have no collagen. They’re all what God blessed me with. I do have pierced ears, if that counts as fake.”
“Okay, I’ll put it plainer. Did you agree to this pretend thing because of my money?” he said.
She opened her mouth to give him an angry answer but snapped it shut and thought about what she’d say for a long time.
“Well?” he asked.
“I’m thinking.”
“About how to beat around the bush?”
“Words are just words, Colton. If I was trying to con you, then I’d lie so well you wouldn’t even catch me, wouldn’t I? I’d say what you wanted to hear, maybe bat my eyelashes, and reassure you with kisses or sex. But it would all be part of the trick to swindle you.”
“Then you admit that you did see an opportunity?” he asked.
“No, I don’t admit that. I’m an honest person. I’m not playing any kind of game. Whether you believe that or not is up to you. What you see is what I am. No bells. No whistles. Just plain old hardworking Laura Baker. No intrigue and no fraud.”
The silence when she finished was almost suffocating. She felt like she did when she was a little girl and the social worker said that she and Janet were going to different homes. Her chest hurt and her stomach felt queasy. But she couldn’t make him believe her or trust her, either. He’d been running from women and people with an agenda ever since he won the lottery.
His hand covered hers. His fingers inched their way between hers with the tips resting on her palm. He scooted over until his thigh was pressed against hers and whispered, “I believe you but…”
“But you are a billionaire and most folks see money when they look at you, right?”
He was nodding when she looked up.
“Well, Colton Nelson, I don’t see money. I see a hardworking cowboy with a sense of humor who is a lot of fun to be around. I don’t believe that money is evil, but it is worthless when it comes to the important things in life,” she whispered back.
He untangled his fingers from hers and slipped his hand around her back. It felt hot on her cool skin but not as hot as his lips when they claimed her mouth for a long, lingering kiss that felt very, very real and not the least bit make-believe.
His tongue flicked through her slightly parted lips, slowly and methodically making love to her. Kisses were so personal, almost more so than sex. Words couldn’t describe the feelings they stirred within her. Emotions were exposed that she had never, ever felt before.
Liquid heat boiled inside her, creating a desire for more and more. She shifted her body until she was sitting in his lap. One hand pressed against his rock-hard chest, the fingers on the other hand combed their way into his thick dark hair. The kisses went from hot to scorching as she pressed her whole body hard against his.
His hand moved around her rib cage and under the top of the bathing suit to cup a breast, at first cautiously and then more daring as he toyed with it. She gasped. God Almighty, didn’t he realize that his hands were hotter than blue blazes? She wiggled even closer and moaned, not caring if she woke up tomorrow with burns all over her body from his touch.
He pulled away from her enough to move his hand downward toward her bikini bottom. If Roxie came running in the door right then, she intended to dig that damned doll back up and create a real voodoo doll from it.
But it wasn’t Roxie who stopped the progress.
She was unzipping his wet jean shorts when Daisy jumped onto her lap and laid a half-dead mouse on her bare thighs. It made a chirping noise like a baby bird and flipped around on her leg, tail swishing back and forth until Daisy batted it with her paw, sending it flying through the air to land on her other leg.
Colton’s hand stayed in the bikini bottoms when she jumped off his lap and together they went sprawling in the hay. Daisy grabbed her mouse and darted away with it straight up the stacked hay to a higher place.
“What was that all about?” Colton asked.
She wiggled free of his hand and rolled away from him. The quiver started at her neck and traveled to her toes, then shot back up through her body and to her cheeks before it stopped.
“Mouse.”
“Where?”
“Daisy put it in my lap. It touched both my legs.” She swiped at her skin, trying to wipe away the feel of the critter’s legs trying to get traction against her bare skin.
“Damn cat,” he muttered.
“I hate mice. Absolutely hate them.”
He sat up and combed his hair back with his fingers. “Good.”
“Good? What’s good about them or hating them?”
“I thought the reaction was against me. It’s good that it wasn’t.”
She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She’d never, ever—not one time in her life—gone that far that fast with anyone. She didn’t even do kisses on first dates, and her two relationships had taken six months of serious dating to make it to the bedroom.
She swiped at her bare leg for the hundredth time. It took all of her willpower just to keep from running the whole distance to the carriage house. It would take a bar of soap and an hour of scrubbing before she felt clean again.
He ran a hand up her arm. “Don’t suppose we could start where we left off.”
“Not a chance. I need a bath to get the feel of mouse off me. You?”
“I think I’ll go back to the pool and see if the cold water will take care of my problem.” He chuckled.
She rocked up onto her knees and then stood. “Sorry about that.”
“Wasn’t your fault, darlin’. But that damned cat best stay out of my sight for the next week.”
She didn’t use a whole bar of soap but she did scrub until her thighs were red. When she finished she tucked the ends of a big fluffy towel under her arm and padded into the bedroom. There was Daisy, sitting on the extra pillow and licking her paws.
“I’d lick my paws too if they’d touched a nasty old mouse.” Laura said.
The cat ignored her.
“Please tell me you didn’t bring that thing to the bed.”
She looked up and meowed.
Laura carefully checked every inch of the bed but found nothing. She dropped the towel, stepped into clean underpants, and a pulled a nightshirt over her head.
“How do you get in here through closed and locked doors?”
Daisy turned around twice on the pillow and curled up in a ball, putting her paw over her nose.
/> “Well, good night to you too. I’m going to figure out how you are getting in and out of my room and when I do, I intend to fix it. Until then, you’d do well to remember that cats who bring mice to me are not my friend. Do you understand?”
Chapter 8
Daisy was gone the next morning when Laura awoke. She checked under the bed, in the bathroom, and even the window ledge. She did find a paw print on the rim of the potty and a faint one on the tile floor leading back to the bedroom. They ended there and no matter which angle she looked, the carpet yielded no clues. But while she was on her hands and knees trying to figure out if the cat was magic, she noticed a tuft of yellow hair stuck in the air vent at the bottom of the door. She crawled over to it and there was a shadow on the other side right along with some serious purring.
Laura fussed at the cat. “Don’t beg me to open that door. You know how to get in and out of every room in this house. Your purring don’t charm me. You are spoiled. Cats don’t belong in the house. They belong in the barn, catching rats and mice. And that sounded just like Aunt Dotty!”
The vent popped to the inside. Daisy pushed her head inside and her body followed. She meowed at Laura and began to weave around her legs, begging for attention. Laura ran her hand around the vent and found that it was hinged on the top but the bottom was completely free.
“So this is your magic. Well, darlin’, if you ever bring a mouse near me again, I’ll duct tape it shut. You can butt your little brains out and this vent won’t open.”
Daisy meowed again and pushed her way right back out onto the landing at the top of the staircase. Laura dressed in jeans and a knit shirt, heated up a cup of coffee in the microwave, and drank it on the way to the house. Daisy followed so close to her heels that she had to be careful to avoid stepping on the cat.
When she opened the door Daisy rushed in ahead of her. Laura peeked into the dining room to find it empty, snagged a piece of toast, and was in the hallway when she heard a crash followed by Roxie fussing at the cat. It was a good thing that Aunt Maudie had her own suite of rooms off the dining room. And that Daisy could not tattle because what Roxie called that cat would have gotten her in big trouble.
Laura had grown up with a mother that had a large repertoire of cuss words, sometimes strung together so well that they would blister the paint off of a car, so she understood just exactly where Roxie’s vocabulary came from. She smiled and waited to hear her apologize to the cat but it didn’t happen. Daisy trotted down the stairs, her tail straight up, as if she were pissed at the whole world.
Colton was sipping coffee when Laura made it into the dining room. “Good mornin’. Have any mouse problems last night?”
“No, but I figured out how that pesky cat gets into my room.”
“Through the vent in the door. I would have told you if you’d asked. Folks that built this place had a little Chihuahua. If Daisy gets much fatter, she’ll have trouble using the vents. I’m just glad that Donald doesn’t think he belongs in the house too.”
“Donald?”
“Remember, Andy told you about him the first day you met Daisy. And for the record, Daisy is named after Daisy Duke, not Daisy Duck. She gets her feelings hurt when anyone thinks that she’s a duck. Donald is named after Donald Duck so that’s why most people think that when they meet Daisy. Donald stays down at the pond most of the summer but when food gets scarce he comes waddling up here to beg for scraps or for a cup of the special grain that Rusty gets for him.” Colton smiled.
She heard the words but she felt the smile. It generated enough electricity in the room to crackle. “I betcha Sally would have something to say about a duck in the house.”
“I imagine she would. At least Daisy is trained to a litter pan. Sally would have our hides if she had to clean up after Donald.” He chuckled. “I’ve got a question.”
She poured a cup of coffee and carried it to the table. “If you get to ask one, then I do. That’s the rule of twenty questions, and I believe we still have fifteen left for each of us.”
“Fair enough. Do you have a real boyfriend waiting in the wings for when you leave here?” he asked.
“Do you have a woman you are already wishing you’d asked out before you agreed to this situation?”
“No, I do not,” he answered quickly.
She sipped her coffee. “I’m not in a relationship with anyone. I have been in the past. Twice. Neither worked out. If I was in love with someone else, I would not have agreed to the arrangement and I would not have kissed you or made out with you in the barn.”
“Then you give your whole heart when you give it?” he asked.
“I’m not sure I’d know how to give my whole heart to anyone. That would involve a lot of trust. The only person I’ve ever trusted that much is my sister.”
He rubbed a hand across his chin. “Your sister? You have to bail her out of trouble every time you turn around and you trust her that much?”
“She’s always in trouble, but through it all I know she loves me and she would never, ever forsake me.”
His dark eyebrows knit together. “Kind of like Granny has been to me, I guess.”
“I suppose so. Why did you even want to know?”
“Because I would never trespass on another man’s territory.”
She believed him. “Never have?”
“No, ma’am. Could have lots of times even before the money, but if it’s got someone else’s brand, it’s not mine. Seems dishonest as well as immoral.”
She had to swallow the mouthful of coffee fast to keep from spewing it across the table. “Women are not cattle!”
“No, ma’am, they are not. A man should respect them far more than he does his livestock and a decent man wouldn’t steal another man’s heifer. I could use some help in the hay field this morning. I asked Andy if I could borrow you since he’s going into town for the day to meet with the tax people. You up for doing some baling today?”
She wasn’t sure if he’d just called her a heifer or if he’d paid her a compliment or what he’d said. Sitting inside a tractor cab would give her plenty of time to think it through and figure out exactly what Colton Nelson was beating around the bush about. Mercy, but the man’s deep drawl was intoxicating. He could describe the method of making manure and it would mesmerize her.
“I’ll be ready soon as I eat. Meet you on the porch. Well, good morning, Roxie. You are running late,” she said.
“I’m sick. I can’t go to school,” Roxie said.
“That’s bullshit,” Laura told her. “Go back upstairs, put on that pretty new shirt I bought you for the party next week and those fancy jeans. And get out that fancy headband with the sparkly stuff on it for your hair. You are going to school!”
“I can’t go, Laura. I really can’t.”
“You want Rosalee to win? The curse won’t be undone unless you face her within twenty-four hours.”
Roxie mumbled all the way back up the stairs. When she reached the top she yelled back down, “If I wear my new things to school, what am I going to wear to the party?”
“I’ll bring you something special from Dallas or we’ll go back to the store. Get dressed. You’ve got fifteen minutes. I’ll make a sausage biscuit and pour up some juice for you to take with you to eat on the bus,” Laura hollered back.
Roxie’s voice floated to the dining room. “I’d rather have a container of milk from the fridge. You may get paired up with the preacher for the games since you are making me go to school when I’m sick.”
Colton chuckled. “I’m not sure that I like this new rebellious Roxie.”
“Of course you like her and she’ll grow up to be a strong woman if you give her a few gentle pushes,” Laura told him. “Now, tell me more about these games.”
“The barn party will start in the morning and last all day. The games are a big part of it. She gets to play
matchmaker for the first time this year. You and I will be a couple, naturally, and she and Dillon will be one. She’ll pair your sister up with one of the guys from the bunkhouse,” Colton explained.
“But she and Dillon are broke up,” Laura argued.
“They’ll make up and break up a couple of times before then. Don’t you remember what it was like when you were sixteen?” He laughed.
“Not if I can help it,” she muttered under her breath. “Want to tell me what to expect on the games?”
“It’s all about teamwork and we have to trust each other if we want to win. And I really, really want to win, so expect to work hard.” He settled his straw hat on his head and headed toward the porch.
***
At the end of the day she was hot and sweaty. She’d listened to a Creedence Clearwater Revival CD she’d found in the cab of the tractor at least a dozen times. The twang of the guitar and the words to “Green River” stuck in her head.
Her boots made little dust devils in the loose dirt when she hopped down from the tractor. Rusty and Colton drove up, leaving clouds of dust mixing together behind the trucks in their wake. Rusty didn’t waste a bit of time getting out of his big black truck and hurrying over to the tractor.
“I’m just here to get my favorite Creedence CD. I drove that tractor yesterday and left it in there by mistake. Missed it today,” he said.
“So you are a Creedence fan?”
“Oh, yeah! I cut my teeth on their music. My momma and daddy played it all the time.”
“I might’ve worn a couple of hours’ worth of listenin’ off it today.”
“That’s all right. Anyone who appreciates good old CCR can borrow my music.” He stood on the running board and grabbed the CD. “You even made sure it was back in the case.”
“Oh, yeah! It would be a sin to get a scratch on a Creedence CD.”
Colton held the truck door open for her. “You really like that kind of music?”
“Listened to it all day, though.” She hopped up into the seat. “I like country music better than anything, but CCR has a life and pulse of its own. My sister loves it so I know the lyrics to just about everything they ever did. And before you ask, yes, she knows the lyrics to every Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, and Miranda Lambert song too.”
Billion Dollar Cowboy Page 11